


Codename Sailor V (Excerpt from "A Few More Good Men: Unsung Heroes of the Fight Against Hydra")

by klmqr6



Category: Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon | Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, Captain America (Movies), Code Name: Sailor V
Genre: Fake History
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-27
Updated: 2016-09-27
Packaged: 2018-08-18 05:25:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,306
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8150606
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/klmqr6/pseuds/klmqr6
Summary: Taken from the critically acclaimed collection, the excerpt outlines the known information about Codename Sailor V and her role in the fight against Nazi and Hydra forces.





	

Perhaps one of the strangest tales to come out of the SSR’s files is that of Codename Sailor V. Recruited from London and sent across the Channel during the War, Sailor V’s story is one that is almost impossible to believe. Her very existence was only recently proven as part of a large declassification of SSR files from WWII. Even this information is difficult to trust in light of Sailor V’s history and the intelligence community’s treatment of her legacy during the post-War era. 

From the very beginning, Sailor V was a figure of mystery. The very first reports of her surfaced in London during the Blitz, with reports of a young woman stopping looters and thieves in the wake of bombings. Very little detail was given of the woman, with most reports only confirming she was blonde and wearing what seemed like a uniform of some sort. While these initial reports were unclear, details became solid in the coming year as her actions in London became more and more bold. These actions ultimately culminated in a warehouse fire and the exposure of a HYDRA cell in the heart of London. Chronologically, this is where her official file started: frantic memos and telegrams sent before the ashes had even cooled, all of them asking how something like this could have happened, and rushed orders to find the young woman. The task was given to MI-5 Agents Jonathan McNally and Hugh Duane, a task McNally described as “...easy, shouldn’t take more than a day or two” in a memo to his supervisor. The task took a month and, from a modern perspective, seems more due to chance than anything.

Once within the custody of MI-5, and Agents McNally and Duane, the specifics of Sailor V become more clear. Despite the weeks of cat and mouse with the MI-5 agents, she was entirely willing to talk, telling the agency any information they wish to know. 

The personal information on Sailor V lists her name as Mina Magellan, a sixteen year old from Central London. By her own account, she was orphaned and largely living on the streets of London. She had started fighting crime because she hated seeing people take advantage of the Blitz, and found herself unwilling to stand by and do nothing. After the Blitz had ended she found it easy to just keep going. A psychological evaluation lets us know that “She believes that the people of London still need help, and furthermore believes she was the only one capable of doing so, a dangerous idea for a young woman to have.” 

Inquiries into her discovery of the HYDRA cell revealed that Magellan was an intelligent young woman, thorough in her work. “It’s sound stuff, to be sure,” reads a memo written by McNally to his supervisor within MI-5. “A surprising amount of legwork was done, though she takes some leaps in the process that she simply couldn’t explain.” Magellan’s work, thoroughly reviewed and criticized but still able to hold water, gave MI-5 something of an idea

By this point in time, Captain America had risen to fame in America, and Britain was looking for a way to make its own version. An unknown person within MI-5, possibly Magellan herself, put forth the idea of sending the young woman into Allied France. The idea was, on paper, to have her root out Nazi sympathizers and kick them to the curb, much as Captain America seemed to be doing on the silver screen. In truth she was to be the face of a larger MI6 operation, appearing to have her photograph taken at the scene of select successful MI-6 raids. Despite her age and gender, the proposal was approved in record time, and Magellan was transferred to MI-6.

To the dismay of her new handlers, the transfer of Magellan caught the eye of SSR Agent Peggy Carter. Carter was extremely disapproving of what was clearly a PR stunt, and furious over MI-6 taking advantage of an eager, patriotic young woman. She sent several scathing memos to agents in charge of the operation in MI-6. When SSR business brought Agent Carter to London she made sure to find the time to visit MI-6 headquarters and thoroughly dress down Magellan’s handler. It wasn’t until the agency offered a meeting that she was even remotely satisfied. “Everything about this is suspect,” she wrote in a letter to a colleague within the SSR. “I don’t know what MI6 is even thinking, that they would consider doing something like this.”

Agent Carter was directed to an MI6 training area, where Magellan was temporarily staying as she prepared to cross the Channel. Despite the intention to have her do little more than pose for photographs, Magellan was still undergoing basic training to get her ready for the field; similar to the one undergone by women inducted into auxiliary military units. Despite the low priority of her training, Magellan was treating it seriously, and excelling in the process. According to reports made by trainers, they had to separate Magellan from the rest of the recruits due to “...low morale among the men.” In other words, Magellan was thoroughly beating them, even those with more experience.

Agent Carter spoke with Magellan and watched her run through some of the training. “I think that was the only time I ever spoke to her in person,” she recalls. “She was very nervous; she knew I was there to stop her going to France.” Magellan was certainly eager to go, according to her file; from what information is available, she seemed to talk of little else. After her visit, Carter seemed mollified, but a new problem quickly arose--the SSR was attempting to share supervision of the young woman.

“[Magellan] has already proven adept at finding HYDRA operatives. As HYDRA is largely the concern of the SSR, making Magellan a joint operative of both the SSR and MI-6 would be to the benefit of all involved,” reads the official proposal. MI-6, eager to free up an agent for other duties, agreed and supervision of Magellan was again transferred. 

As part of joining the SSR, Agent Carter made sure Magellan was outfitted appropriately. Magellan worked closely with the SSR to develop her uniform, largely based on what she had worn in London. Outfitters made sure to protect Magellan as best they could while attempting to follow her wishes regarding the uniform--with mixed results. The end result was a combination of a traditional auxiliary uniform complete with a skirt, though raised above her knees and pleated for mobility, and a sailor’s uniform. Magellan’s insistence on the sailor collar, which had been a part of her homemade uniform as well, earned her the nickname Sailor V among the outfitters--the V officially standing for victory, though it doubtless meant something far cruder originally. This became Magellan’s official codename when she was sent across the Channel.

‘Sailor V’ crossed the Channel on a priority flight with an agent from MI6 and the SSR each. Neither were particularly excited about the presence of the young woman or their fellow agent, though they were each looking forward to their overall mission. “I am sure I will end up doing the bulk of the work,” wrote SSR Agent Thomas Bryce to his former partner shortly before crossing the Channel. “But it’s no matter, it is good work.” MI-6 Agent Patrick Watson felt similarly, saying, “I’ll have to keep an eye on both of them, Bryce to keep him out of the pub and Magellan to keep her skirt on. I don’t know how I’ll get any work done, but I shall have to do my best.” The small group landed without issue, both agents reported in and then seemingly disappeared for three days. 

The next communication received is a priority telegraph sent to MI-6 headquarters. It read “CODENAME SAILOR V MISSING STOP VANISHED DURING OUR FIRST NIGHT STOP NO SIGN OF A STRUGGLE STOP PLEASE ADVISE STOP”. Further agents were quickly dispatched to help the frantic Bryce and Watson search for the missing Magellan, but found nothing. Supervisors within both agencies were beginning to fear the worst when Agent Carter arrived with a letter, seemingly sent by Magellan and perfectly timed to arrive after her disappearance. It told all concerned that Magellan was very thankful for the ride across the Channel, and the new uniform, but that the young woman herself would be far too busy to follow the rules and procedures of either the SSR or MI-6. The letter itself is long destroyed, but Carter vividly remembers that it closed with “...places to go, Nazis to deal with. Much love, Sailor V.” A postscript on the letter let those in command know she would do her best to get information back when she could, though they shouldn’t expect it on a schedule.

Both agencies were frantic to find the young woman, but finding her quickly proved to be no easy task. Magellan had used the time Bryce and Watson used trying to find her themselves to build up a sizable lead, and agents struggled to track her in the war torn country. When her trail lead straight to the front lines, the search was called off and both agencies began the process of declaring Magellan missing in action, presumed killed.

However, before any permanent action could be taken, word filtered back to the SSR through a Canadian unit of a blonde woman dressed in red, white and blue: Codename Sailor V was still alive. Further, she passed along intel on German units to the Canadians and a package of intel to be sent to the SSR specifically. Then she vanished again. “You know I don’t like to exaggerate,” wrote Private Ryan Battenby about the experience in a letter to his sister, “but if that lady didn’t save at least a few of our lives, I’ll eat my boots. She just crouched down in the mud with Lieutenant and drew out the Kraut lines for us. Talked it through, gave us a package to pass up the line for some intelligence folks, and left. Lieutenant barely had time to give her some rations before she was out of sight.”

As the process repeated itself with units from multiple countries, the SSR found itself becoming begrudgingly used to the process and reluctantly grateful for the information they were being provided. “I don’t care how she’s getting the information; it’s all been accurate, and she’s saving lives. I’m not looking a gift horse in the mouth,” Colonel Chester Phillips said about Magellan by her third month in the field, when a MI-6 agent suggested tracking her down. As it became more apparent that she wasn’t going to be dragged back to England, Magellan, by this time going exclusively by Sailor V, got more bold. She started acting on her information, instead of just passing it along. Soldiers would push into enemy territory to find signs of guerilla warfare on harassed German troops, and HYDRA bases started to suffer from her attention, as well. 

By this time HYDRA was beginning to turn the tide of the war in Germany’s favor, and Captain America was about to enter the fight with his attack on a HYDRA base to save the men of the 107th and Sergeant James Barnes in particular. Within the month, Phillips was rethinking his stance on both Sailor V and the Howling Commandos. “God help us if they ever meet,” he said. “Germany probably won’t survive the explosion.”

As for whether they ever did actually meet, there is no record. “Well, there wouldn’t be, would there?” Carter says of the matter. “Steve [Rogers] was never great at filing a report, and I doubt Magallan knew how. I suppose they were working in the same area a good amount. And by the time the Commandos were really going strong, she was acting on more information than she passed along.” Magellan’s information was still vital, though. Even as she burned down HYDRA supply caches and took out ammo dumps, she was gathering and passing along information to Allied forces. How she was continuing to survive was a mystery to many in the intelligence agencies that were technically tasked with her supervision; Agent Carter wasn’t surprised, and tracked the young woman’s actions as best she could based on the information passed on.

Sailor V’s actions were, unfortunately, taking her further and further behind enemy lines. Communication got rarer and rarer as the war drew to a close. Sailor V’s last communication contains one of the only personal items left, most lost or destroyed after the war, as well as a significant amount of HYDRA intel. The note is written in a loopy script, addressed to Agent Carter and reads, “I think I found what I was looking for. Everything else is for all of you.” Carter, at the time tasked with assisting Captain Steve Rogers take down the leader of HYDRA, Johann Schmitt, wouldn’t get the note until long after it was sent; by then the information Sailor V sent with the note was already being used to take down the last of the HYDRA.

Very few agents within MI6 or the SSR put much stock in the personal message left with this latest cache of intel, and were sure that Sailor V would be in touch soon. As weeks passed without any new sightings or evidence that could be linked to the operative, it became clear that Sailor V was truly gone. Phillips, reluctant to pull Agent Carter off her efforts to take down the last of HYDRA, instead assigned the task of finding Sailor V to a team of agents. Working off of Carter’s own work on Sailor V’s movements, they tracked her wandering path behind what was once enemy lines and into Germany before it took a sharp southern turn and headed straight for the Black Forest. Investigations into the area turned up a destroyed facility that the team leader described in his report with awe and terror. “The whole place is blown to hell. Chunks of wall as big as a shed were blown halfway across the clearing. We only know where the building was because of the blast pattern. [SSR Demolitions Expert] Peters is still trying to figure out what could cause a blast like this. We’ve made some inquiries at the closest village, but it’s too far away to be of any use besides pinpointing when the blast would have occurred. They all ask if it will happen again, and many seem to view it as a supernatural phenomenon.” The site of the facility was only recently declassified, but signs of the crater could be found on satellite photography, and local villages still had stories of what they call “The Night of the Wrath of God”. Even as investigations continued into what happened and how, it became apparent that Sailor V did not survive it. Mina Magellan, Codename Sailor V, was officially declared killed in action in November of 1945.

The SSR and MI-6 both put Sailor V’s name up for awards and commendations, and processes began to get in touch with any next of kin that could receive the awards on her behalf. In her initial briefings, Sailor V had declared herself an orphan, but both agencies were confident they could find a relative to inform of her brave actions. Preliminary investigations into her background quickly stalled: all the information that they had been given hit dead ends. Internal inquiries revealed that the background information collected by MI-5 had been investigated by a new analyst by the name of Arthur “Artie” Missman, who had gone missing around the same time Sailor V was being flown across the Channel. Inquiries into his whereabouts hit similar dead ends. All three agencies began serious investigations into what happened, but despite all efforts, very little was to be found.

In January of 1946, key personnel from the SSR, MI-5, and MI6 met to discuss the situation. All attempts to dig up information about Magellan or Missman had turned up nothing, and there were serious concerns about Missman’s infiltration of MI-5. In the end, the agencies reached a decision: Sailor V’s actions in the War would be erased from public record, and her file, Missman’s highly classified intel, and the situation buried. Agent Carter, not invited to the meeting, only found out about it after the actions had been taken. She was, predictably, furious, but unfortunately there was little that could be done for the situation. The files had been classified above her clearance, and Sailor V had been little but a rumor for most; any stories about her quickly fading to fanciful recollection, scoffed at by anyone listening in. “They just wanted it hidden,” Carter said of the matter in a letter to a colleague. “They found themselves in a vulnerable state and decided it was easier to hide and discredit this woman who helped so much than admit a mistake had been made, admit that they had been fooled. They erased her, took away her contributions, killed her as much as the actual explosion. And why? Because she made them look foolish.”

Sailor V’s file was made public as part of a massive declassification of WWII-era files in the early 2000s. Sharp-eyed historians that combed through the files quickly connected her to the evidence remaining in letters and a few battlefield recollections. These historians immediately went to work to try and make a better picture of her life and service, finding allies in the form of the now-retired Carter as well as archivists within the modern incarnations of the agencies involved with Sailor V. Despite their efforts many holes remain about her life, and researchers are still working to fill as many of them as they can. Since Mina Magellan was apparently a false identity, just who was the girl in the sailor collar? 

Support groups are pushing to have Sailor V honored with a gravesite within one of Great Britain’s military cemeteries, but concerns over location and what would be engraved on the gravestone stymie efforts. In November of 2005 the Monument to the Women of World War II, located in London’s Whitehall, had a sign placed next to it that read REMEMBER SAILOR V. For the entire month, the sign was replaced during the night if removed, and has reappeared in November at the site every year since. 

Sailor V’s story remains a mystery, a puzzle for historians to debate. As public attention rises, it is important to remember that she is more than the mystery left in her wake. She was a young woman, dedicated to her duty and sure of what she had to do. Psychological evaluations label her as “pinpoint focused” and “dangerously dedicated” but fellow training recruits described her as a cheerful person, who viewed the trainings as a game and made any activity more enjoyable. Battlefield accounts of her describe her as a happy presence, joking as she passed along information. More than one account describes a love for bad puns and dirty jokes. “She told a joke so blue half the men were blushing,” a captain said about her visit to his unit. Very few accounts remain of her attitude during fighting as she preferred to fight alone; what does exist aligns with the assessments from her training: tenacious, dedicated, and powerful. Sailor V is truly one of the unsung heroes of the fight against HYDRA and the Nazi regime as a whole. Her story is still growing and living on as more information and stories come to light, and perhaps someday the world will know her whole story. For now, she is remembered as a soldier of justice and peace, and her place in history is fought for by those dedicated to her legacy.


End file.
